By Tim E. Stewart
DARWIN — Boosted by a conference of Australian Education Union delegates held here over the May Day long weekend, 1000 NT teachers rallied outside the NT parliament on May 10. The rally marked a turning point for the nine-month
Issue 231
News
By Ben Reid
MELBOURNE — An estimated 2000 workers from the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) attended a stop-work meeting on May 8. Meetings were also held in other centres. The purpose was to reaffirm the union's push for a 15% pay rise
ACT government back-flip on pay deal
By Tim Gooden
CANBERRA â When ACT unions arrived at the Australian Industrial Relations Commission on May 9, they thought they were about to ratify across-government-services enterprise agreements. Instead
By Melanie Sjoberg
ADELAIDE — More than 1000 people rallied at Noarlunga in the southern suburbs on May 8 as part of the campaign against the state Liberal government's cuts to education. Around 100 schools were closed as part of the rolling
Kathy Newnam
BRISBANE — Three hundred students rallied at the University of Queensland on May 9, demanding proper representation by the Liberal-run student union. In response, 60 police were called onto the campus, eight students were arrested
"No free trade without free trade unions" was the theme of the 300-strong May day march on May 1 in Adelaide. Melanie Sjoberg reports that Greg Mead, author of The Royal Omission, told the crowd about the gross misrepresentation of Aboriginal culture
By Nick Fredman
SYDNEY — A range of groups promoting solidarity with the East Timorese struggle for self-determination are holding events over the next few weeks. These events are designed to help build the August 25 National Day of Solidarity,
By Brendan Doyle
SYDNEY — Less than a week after the Port Arthur massacre, about 1500 people rallied in Hyde Park to call for stricter gun laws. The rally was organised by the Coalition for Gun Control. The mood was sombre, matched by the dark
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — The Registrar of Aboriginal Corporations on May 8 cleared the Brisbane Aboriginal Legal Service of any wrongdoing. Registrar Noureddine Bouhafs has advised the service that it will be able to go back to Aboriginal
By Nick Fredman
SYDNEY — Teachers from public and Catholic schools, TAFE and the Adult Migrant Education Service resolved at joint meetings across NSW on May 10 to strike for three days in the week following the May 21 state budget unless their
By Jennifer Thompson
Workers at CRA-owned Novacoal's Vickery mine are still on strike after the federal Industrial Relations Commission arbitrated on April 24 in favour of management, allowing the introduction of 12-hour shifts for a six-month
Thousands of public servants from around the country attended stop-work meetings of the Community and Public Sector Union on May 9 to decide on strategies to fight the Howard government's attacks on the public service. From Sydney, Sarah Harris
By Adam Hanieh
ADELAIDE — The Keep Telstra Public Alliance has been formed to lead the campaign against the privatisation of Telstra. KTPA brings together a range of organisations such as the CEPU, CPSU, ACF, Friends of the Earth, Green Party,
World
OSLO — The Norwegian government ignored scientific findings and flouted international norms to set a quota of 425 on the north-east Atlantic population of minke whales on May 4, according to Greenpeace Norway. In 1982, the International Whaling
In a blatant attack on civil rights, on April 29, 13 people were sentenced to prison terms for protesting at the US Army School of the Americas (SOA) in Columbus, Georgia. The protest, held on November 16 annually, is part of the SOA Watch's campaign
The Dunblanes that are never news
By John Pilger
It is three weeks since Dunblane and the moving tributes delivered by John Major and other politicians to the child victims of guns. "We must keep our anger burning bright", said David Mellor MP.
The top pesticide companies all recorded increases in dollar sales in 1995, according to Agrow: World Crop Protection News. Global agrochemical sales rose by 11.9% to almost US$29 billion. Discounting inflation and currency factors, growth in real
Landowners on the Ok Tedi and Fly rivers have overwhelmingly rejected the Eighth Supplemental Agreement Compensation Act package, agreed to between the PNG government and Ok Tedi mine operator BHP, the PNG Independent newspaper reported on May 3. In
By Renfrey Clarke
MOSCOW — With close to 1000 square kilometres of Ukraine made uninhabitable by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, you might expect the authorities in the capital, Kiev, to take a tolerant attitude to protests against nuclear
In promoting Windows 95, Microsoft mounted one of the most expensive advertising campaigns in US history. Microsoft failed to mention that some of the company's new software is packed by prison labour. This news comes from Paul Wright and Dan Pens,
By Norm Dixon
Local government elections in KwaZulu/Natal scheduled for May 29 have been again postponed due to escalating violence in the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) controlled province. The local poll, which took place in most other parts of
By Norm Dixon
The trial of Magnus Malan and the other apartheid generals in Durban is revealing the extent of Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi's sordid collaboration with the apartheid regime. It is now apparent that Buthelezi himself was part of the
New Zealanders have recently been hit by electricity price rises of up to 29%. The opposition Alliance says these rises are a consequence of the corporatisation and privatisation of power companies. Alliance energy spokesperson and deputy leader
KIEN SEREY PHAL is director of the Cambodian Women's Development Association in Phnom Penh. She spoke to ROSANNA BARBERO about the problem of the trafficking of women. Question: When did this issue escalate?
Since 1989, there has been a dramatic
NINA LANSBURY visited Iran in November. Here she presents some of her observations. I had an eerie feeling of living within my novel. I was reading George Orwell's 1984, and each time I glanced up from the pages of Big Brother, the large and always
By Art Y
Nearly four months ago, the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) proclaimed a unilateral cease-fire and called on the Turkish government to negotiate on the issues regarding the Kurdish question. In response, Turkish troops began a mass operation
While most of the left and the trade union movement are lining up behind President Clinton's bid for re-election, there are important signs that sectors of the left and even part of the union leadership are beginning to discuss breaking out of the
Latin America is becoming one of the fastest growing regions for agrochemical sales, according to "Crop Protection in Latin America", a January 1996 publication by Agrow Reports. Latin America accounts for approximately US$2.6 billion, which is 9% of
Culture
HamletBy William ShakespeareDirected by Marian DworakoskiNew Theatre, Sydney, until July 6Reviewed by Jonathan Strauss The Sydney New Theatre, formed in 1932, has been a pioneer in presenting socially relevant and committed theatre and proclaims its
By Pip Hinman
This year's film festival, June 7-22, promises some fascinating new films from countries not often represented. Apart from a range of films from Europe, Britain, the US and Asia, films from Iceland, Brazil and Vietnam will also
What is Nature?: Culture, Politics and the non-HumanBy Kate SoperBlackwell, 1995. 289 pp. $39.95Reviewed by Neville Spencer Concepts of what nature is and of what counts as natural feature both explicitly and implicitly in much progressive political
Basque struggle Web site (http://www.knooppunt.be/~euskadi/) — A site devoted to spreading information about the struggle of the Basque people for self-determination is up and running again after the Swiss internet provider closed the site. This
Peace and its Discontents: Gaza-Jericho 1993-1995By Edward SaidVintage Press, 1995. 197 pp., $14.95Reviewed by Adam Hanieh Edward Said has been a prominent Palestinian critic of the peace accords since the signing of the Declaration of Principles
American TabloidBy James EllroyArrow, 1995, 585 pp., $12.95 (pb)Reviewed by Phil Shannon Home of the brave, land of the free: whoever penned that didn't want us to know about the dark side of the United States — the CIA, Hoover's witch-hunting FBI,
Resistance!
Nick Everett is a member of Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) in Brisbane. He recently spent ten days in East Timor, travelling to Dili, Bacau, Los Palos and a number of other towns. He was able to observe the situation of
Indonesian solidarity with East Timor
Indonesian solidarity with East Timor
In December 1995 a group of East Timorese independence activists and Indonesian supporters occupied the Dutch and Russian embassies in Jakarta. They climbed the embassy
[The following is an excerpt from a letter written to Resistance by Xanana Gusmao, jailed leader of the National Council of Maubere Resistance (CNRM) in 1995].
I am honoured and proud for the Maubere people to receive your letter. Proud because
1974: Portugese dictator overthrown. New political parties formed in East Timor: Timorese Democratic Union (UDT), Social Democratic Association of Timor (ASDT; later Fretilin) and Timorese Popular Democratic Association (Apodeti).
October 16